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The rebuilt pump was returned to the power station, and the plant's own condition monitoring group conducted a performance test after it was installed. The performance test revealed a generous rise in performance, proving an increase in flow of 7.8 percent above that of the original specified maximum duty point for this pump. IPRH was pleased with the results-not only was the efficiency increased substantially, but the amount of energy used to run the pump also decreased. This reduction of energy used to run the pump provided a direct savings to the station.

Hazelwood power station

Lessons Learned

While governments and the power generation industry face the current challenge of providing enough energy for a booming world population, one of the most important lessons we can learn from this example is that a power station can manage their carbon footprint by reducing the amount of energy used by their pumping systems. According to Pump Life Cycle Costs: A Guide to LCC Analysis for Pumping Systems by the Hydraulic Institute and Europump, pumping systems consume about 20 percent of the world's energy and 20 to 50 percent of the energy in some industrial plants.

In this instance, a pump that was more than 40 years old was able to be reengineered at a significant cost savings and higher generation capacity.

Service providers overall should not only understand the available engineered upgrades, but should also properly perform the modifications and return a more efficient pump.

Author Bio:

Ross Bertoli is general manager of Hydro Australia, 011-61-3-5165-0390. Mark Moerke is turbine section manager with International Power Hazelwood. Click here to visit Hydro, Inc.